Gordon Murray is probably one of the finest car designers in the world. In the past, he has designed the epic McLaren F1 supercar, still one of the best supercars ever created. He also designed race cars for Formula 1 teams Brabham and McLaren, his greatest of those potentially being the McLaren MP4/4 from 1988. And more recently, he does of course now have his own company, Gordon Murray Automotive, and that has designed and built the truly awesome T.50 and is well on its way to revealing the T.33.
However, there is one car that possibly stands out above all of those, including the MP4/4. In 1978, Murray was working at the Brabham team, with drivers Niki Lauda and John Watson at the wheel for that season, with Nelson Piquet joining them at the final round. The 1978 Brabham was the BT46, and at the Swedish Grand Prix, Brabham rocked up to the track with a modified version dubbed the BT46B. What Murray and fellow designer David Cox had created was an extraordinary fan car, that generated such levels of downforce that the teams forced it to be banned after it had competed in just the one race, which it won easily. This is the story of that car.
The BT46 In Standard Form
The BT46 had made its racing debut at the third round of the 1978 F1 season, the South African Grand Prix. The car was powered by an Alfa Romeo Flat-12 engine that produced 520 hp, some 50 hp more than the Cosworth DFV that was in use with most teams at that point. The BT46 was quick even in conventional form, however the one thing that really plagued the car was reliability. Lauda raced the car for 14 of the year's 16 races, and he was on the podium of every race he finished. But he only finished five of those, retiring from the nine other events.
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Watson was in a similar position, bringing in consistent results and a good number of podiums, but retiring from five races in the car. It was around this time that ground effect had become a factor in car development, ie the effect of using the underside of the car to generate downforce and almost suck the car to the ground. This was clear for all to see, with the Lotus Type 79s utilizing this to perfection in the 1978 season.
The Brabham In Fan Form
By the early part of the year, Murray understood just how Colin Chapman and Lotus were getting the downforce and grip from the Lotus 79. Alongside fellow Brabham designer Cox, Murray crafted the “fan car”. Murray had designed a version of the BT46 with a complex series of clutches running from the engine, to a large single fan at the back of the car. The faster the engine ran, the stronger the suction effect. Cox meanwhile had designed the overall layout for the car, and he and Murray were able to argue the fan's primary purpose was to cool the car, and this meant the car, technically, was satisfying the regulations. The whole car was basically sealed to the ground, the whole car being sucked to the ground and producing staggering downforce numbers.
The car was tested in secrecy prior to the Swedish Grand Prix, and it certainly had the desired effect. Lauda described the car as unpleasant to drive, saying it would stick to the road as if on rails, but it exposed the driver to very high lateral loads, and if ground effect developed at this rate, drivers would be exhausted come the end of a Grand Prix. Despite this, the two BT46Bs headed to Anderstorp for the Swedish race. Watson and Lauda deliberately put the cars second and third on the grid, to not reveal the huge advantage the car had. The two drivers had qualified the car with full tanks to avoid taking pole position under orders from team boss Bernie Ecclestone.
Lauda Dominates The Race
Despite the legality of the car being protested, it was indeed allowed to race. Mario Andretti led the way initially in the Lotus, whilst Lauda jumped up to second. A mistake by Andretti saw Lauda swoop around the outside of him, whilst the Lotus would eventually retire thanks to a broken valve. Later on, a backmarker dropped oil all over the track, but the Brabham was unaffected by this. It had so much more grip on the slippery service, and Lauda wrote in his biography that as the fan was activated by the gearbox, the car just produced more grip as it got faster.
A Dominant Win For The Fan Car
Remarkably, Lauda’s win margin of 34.6 seconds wasn’t as big as it could have been. Lauda had again driven in such a manner as to not let the full potential of the car be realized. Watson had sadly spun out of the race early on. The car, though, was basically doomed. Brabham’s rivals pressured Ecclestone to withdraw the car from the series, putting him and Murray in a dilemma, as both men knew they would easily win the title with this car. Brabham voluntarily withdrew the fan car after it won at Sweden, and whilst that victory stood, the car reverted to BT46 form thereafter.
It is perhaps for the good of F1 at the time though that it was withdrawn, even though it’s a shame it was. The rate of development could have been astronomical, and as Lauda predicted, drivers could have been collapsing at the end of a race. This was also at a time when F1 was infinitely more dangerous than it is in 2022. Murray wasn’t happy the car was withdrawn, but this remarkable creation is possibly his greatest piece of work. Had it been used for the whole of 1978, it could have become one of the most dominant cars in Formula 1 history.
Sources: Autosport, F1 Beat, RaceFans, Sports Car Digest, Wikimedia, Motorsport Magazine